(M) Lady
Colette Vitalis
SEA DRAGON
MODERATOR BLACKSWORD ORGANIZER
Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
SCA Name Title: (M) Lady
Preferred Fighting Form: Sword and Stick
Kingdom/Baronial Current Positions: Ponte Alto Knight Marshal, Ponte Alto Rapier Marshal
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Post by Colette Vitalis on Sept 10, 2020 11:50:45 GMT -5
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Post by Dante di Pietro on Sept 20, 2020 5:32:20 GMT -5
Of note, the historical Company of Maisters of the Science of Defence ceased to exist for two chief reasons:
1) New laws prevented them from having a monopoly and they couldn't compete well with more appealing schools. 2) They failed to achieve official guild status.
I think we can do better by learning from, rather than repeating, history.
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(M) Lady
Colette Vitalis
SEA DRAGON
MODERATOR BLACKSWORD ORGANIZER
Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
SCA Name Title: (M) Lady
Preferred Fighting Form: Sword and Stick
Kingdom/Baronial Current Positions: Ponte Alto Knight Marshal, Ponte Alto Rapier Marshal
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Post by Colette Vitalis on Sept 20, 2020 6:18:09 GMT -5
If we fail to include a standard for teaching and evaluating said teaching as part of advancing, we will definitely fall to more appealing (effective) schools. Currently this charter confirms the knowledge that the Academie is a social guild with some traditions and not really an Academie at all. I think this is a mistake. Now is the time to set standards for our teachers or be left behind by groups who do/will.
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Post by Dante di Pietro on Sept 20, 2020 7:16:25 GMT -5
It'd be nice to have teaching standards. I see it as a non-starter in the short term.
It's a supply/demand issue, for the most part. If we had a rigorous standard, most people wouldn't pass it. It's abundantly clear that most people aren't willing to spend adequate time or effort on what would be involved in learning fencing and learning teaching well enough to take on those roles in a way I'd consider viable. So, in order to prevent a giant bottleneck, we'd end up doing what McDojos around the world do and lower standards to something that can be widely attainable-- which gets us back to something akin to what we already have. We don't presently have much in the way of a real teaching staff available, but we also don't have many people who'd actually go to class if we did.
I don't think it's possible to have something that is both 1) broadly appealing and 2) educationally sound. Developing skill takes a lot of work (so much so that I think there is a real misapprehension of just how much work is between scholar and master), and being able to impart that is yet another skill that needs comparable developing.
To put it bluntly, a "teaching academy" is a castle in the sky so long as "reading a manual and then practicing each aspect for months at a time on a near daily basis" is a sticking point. Everyone wants to be Picasso, but no one wants to learn how to paint.
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Post by Dante di Pietro on Sept 20, 2020 7:20:35 GMT -5
Now is the time to set standards for our teachers or be left behind by groups who do/will. Part of the irony here is that I have maybe half a dozen people outside the kingdom using my cert test, and my feedback on their answers, as a syllabus for their practices and the development of their own skills as a teacher. It's set up in such a way that by the time you have it completed in a satisfactory way, you can use it as a reference indefinitely, essentially creating your own manual of research. In Atlantia? Just JG, if memory serves.
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Lord
Percy Aldridge
ACADEMIE PROVOST & WS
SPEARS!
Preferred Pronouns: he/him/his
SCA Name Title: Lord
Preferred Fighting Form: Swords
Kingdom/Baronial Current Positions: Southern Regional Deputy to the Kingdom Rapier Marshal
Household(s): Gardiner's Company
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Post by Percy Aldridge on Sept 21, 2020 17:03:07 GMT -5
The Academie has always been a guild for promotion, pomp, and inclusion into the SCA way of life. If someone wants to see a teaching focused guild, feel free to go forth and build it, but I don't think the Academie is that. As Dante said, there are some (3 I'm aware of) within the Academie with extensive teaching knowledge (it being their profession for a number of years), but most of those are in an academic subject. There are some that have martial or physical coaching experience outside the SCA (4 I'm aware of), which would be more applicable; 2 of those were USFA certified. If that is something you want to build, I would start there.
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